Exporting: A World Of Difference

Businesses Find Fortune Overseas

On his inaugural stroll through the Taiwanese nightclub district, the Maitland businessman saw a bartender mix up a ''snake cocktail'' by slicing open a live snake.

He had seen enough.

''I only went there once,'' Caress said. ''Some Taiwanese businessmen like to entertain you there. If you drink, they think they can loosen you up and get a better price out of you. Most Americans try not to go there anymore.''

Caress is among thousands of American business officials who have explored exotic locales in recent years as the market for U.S. high-tech exports has burgeoned.

Since 1989, his company, Distributed Processing Technology Inc., has amassed a $15 million export business, almost one-third of its total sales. The company produces computer components.

Nationally, export sales of high-tech equipment have tripled since 1984, reaching almost $102 billion last year, according to the Electronic Industries Association, a trade group in Washington.

As exports expand, the opportunities for Central Florida business officials to travel the world have increased. And the experiences of those traveling overseas have run from the sublime to the ridiculous.

They have seen sights such as the Great Wall of China, the Alpine lakes of Switzerland and the sea coasts of Ireland.

They have seen poverty and bleakness, hospitality and humor, honesty and treachery, all at varying times in various places.

Some memories stand out: machine guns on the streets of Israel and South Korea, $150 cab rides in Japan, oil lamps in Chinese homes with no electricity, hot-pepper Mexican restaurants in Russia.

On one trip, Caress said, a young Russian woman approached his group on the street and said in a thick Russian accent, ''Hey, dudes, you got any bucks?''

She was trying to sell them tickets to a rock concert, Caress said. When she found out they were Americans, she asked if anyone was interested in marrying her so she could get out of Russia, he said. They all declined.

Executive Ted Laveck can't forget a visit to Germany, where he found himself standing in a former Nazi war plant near Munich.

During World War II, the Nazis built fighter planes and bombers at the plant for their Luftwaffe air force. Now the building is headquarters for a semiconductor company.

Laveck, a history buff, knew all the notorious details of the building's past.

''It was an eerie feeling to be there working on a business partnership and remember what had gone on in that building during the war,'' said Laveck, chief executive of F.W. Bell Inc., an electronics manufacturer in Orlando.

But there have been many lighter moments highlighting his export treks abroad, Laveck said.

On his first trip to Singapore, Laveck discovered that the native business officials had taken on American names to help them relate to partners from the United States.

One man called himself Iceman Lom.

''I told Iceman I'd never heard a name like that before,'' Laveck said. ''He told me, 'Oh, yes, this is a very famous American name.' ''

It turned out that Lom had gotten the name from a character in the movie Top Gun, which featured Tom Cruise as a Navy fighter pilot.

Traversing the language barriers, learning the cultures and building relationships abroad have paid off for F.W. Bell, Laveck said. Exports total more than $4 million annually, about 12 percent of F.W. Bell's total sales, he said.

International business has become a lucrative field for many Central Florida companies in recent years.

Central Florida's total export sales of all types of products have topped $1 billion annually, said Hal Sumrall, vice president of international development for the Economic Development Commission of Mid-Florida.

''Much of that total comes from the high-tech companies,'' Sumrall said. ''We are seeing companies here becoming more and more adept at handling the export markets.''

Exports have been the lifeblood of Phoenix Wireless Group Inc., a telecommunications company based in Maitland. The company develops, installs and manages wireless telephone systems.

Phoenix expects sales of about $5 million this year, all from the international market, CEO Richard Licursi said.

Trips to China, Bangladesh and the Philippines have bolstered Phoenix's export trade, according to Licursi.

''They are some of warmest and friendliest people in the world,'' he said. ''They readily invite you right into their homes, right into their personal lives. Whenever we're in China, for instance, we always meet our customer in his home and visit his family.''

Other executives also have also found that foreign partners like the personal touch.

Last month, Wendel R. Wendel found himself attending a Lebanese-American wedding in Philadelphia involving the son of Elias Abu-Shaheen, his Lebanese business partner.

Wendel said he has visited Abu-Shaheen in Lebanon several times, tap-dancing around U.S. restrictions on travel to the Middle East country.

''You can use the fax machine and you can use e-mail, but they always want to see you face to face,'' Wendel said. ''The need for a one-on-one personal relationship is high on the list when you're doing business outside the United States.''